CLEVELAND — Chad Green gave up five hits to the Indians on Friday night at Progressive Field. Four of those hits just happened to be home runs.

The rookie right-hander walked two. So he allowed seven men to reach base in his third major league start, and all seven scored. Talk about unwanted perfection.

However, he struck out six, fueled by hard stuff that resulted in 14 swings and misses. As a point of reference, when Masahiro Tanaka shut out the White Sox over 7 ²/₃ innings Tuesday night in Chicago, he induced the inferior White Sox offense to swing and miss 12 times.

If you’re the Yankees, you want to see more of Green, who defeated the Padres in his previous start for his first major league win. You just don’t necessarily want to suffer through a 10-2 blowout at the hands of the Indians, as occurred here, in order to learn about him. Yet, more than ever in this baseball world in which neither dollars nor drugs (of the illegal performance-enhancing variety) carry the clout they once did, you must suffer through pain in order to attain pleasure.

“By no means is [Green] a finished product,” Joe Girardi said after the Yankees’ record dropped to 42-44. “But I definitely see improvement, and we’ll continue to see that.”

This isn’t just about Green, 25. It’s about Rob Refsnyder, 25, whom Girardi started in right field for the second straight night. While Refsnyder went hitless in three at-bats against Indians stud Corey Kluber, who limited the Yankees to five hits and no walks, he still owns an encouraging .286/.352/.390 slash line. It’s about Aaron Hicks, 26, who has hit dreadfully (.199/.264/.304) and who nevertheless deserves more reps given what he showed previously with the Twins.

It’s even about Starlin Castro, 26 and armed with the security of a long-term contract, whose inconsistency in all facets has trumped his obvious talent.

Enduring the perils of youth ensures no spoils of experience. Some of these guys just won’t make it in baseball’s survival of the fittest. The short cuts have been largely cut off, though. The Yankees tried to cover up their blemishes with their massive spending spree during the 2013-14 offseason, and we’ll let you know when that initiative produces its first postseason victory.

Unless these Yankees can execute a stunning resuscitation in a short time, they’ll have to trade at least Carlos Beltran and Aroldis Chapman, if not additional assets such as Andrew Miller, and that will open up more opportunities. Maybe for Aaron Judge, as long as he didn’t suffer too serious an injury Friday night with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (he reportedly limped off the field after a groundout). Perhaps the Yankees can find a taker even for Ivan Nova and ensure that Green keeps going out there.

The problem with Green on Friday, he and Girardi agreed, was his inability to harness his cutter.

“I threw some good ones,” Green said, “just not for strikes.”

“It’s tough,” Girardi said. “But to be successful in this game, you’re going to go through some adversity, and you’ve got to be able to fight through it. I thought he did a pretty good job of fighting through it.”

The Yankees have to fight through their season-long malaise, if not by snapping out of it (which looks increasingly unlikely) then by learning from it. By benefiting from the hard times.

It all sounds so un-Yankee-like. Except what’s more un-Yankee-like than missing the postseason for a third time in four years? The Yankees must shake off their majestic past and bank on an uncomfortable present producing a prosperous future.